5.  In 1994 the applicants’ father entered into a loan agreement with H.M.C., offering a mortgage on his immovable property, a building and the appurtenant land located in Osorhei as a guarantee.
6.  On 3 June 1994, the mortgage was registered with the land registry.
7.  As the applicants’ father did not reimburse the loan on the appointed day, his immovable property was sold at auction to a family, T.T.T. and T.T.S., on 31 May 1996.
8.  The right of ownership of the successful bidders over the immovable property was entered in the land register.
9. On 1 July 1996 the applicants’ father challenged the forced sale, seeking the annulment of the order for the sale of his immovable property. The proceedings were registered with the land registry on 5 January  1998.
10.  Subsequently, on 30 December 1998 despite the pending proceedings regarding the annulment of the sale at auction, the buyers (T.T.T. and T.T.S.) sold the immovable property to another individual, S.R.
11.  On 26 April 2000 the Oradea Court of Appeal allowed the applicants’ father’s action and consequently annulled the forced sale of the immovable property on the ground that the loan had been reimbursed and the price was considerably lower than the real value of the property. However, he could not obtain possession of the immovable property as meanwhile it had been sold to S.R.
12.  Invoking the principle quod nullum est, nullum producit effectum, he lodged an action with the Oradea District Court seeking the annulment of the two sale agreements: the agreement by which T.T.T. and T.T.S. had acquired the immovable property at auction and the subsequent agreement concluded between T.T.T. and T.T.S and S.R.
13.  During the proceedings, the applicants’ father died and he was replaced by the applicants as his heirs.
14.  On 25 October 2001 the Oradea District Court dismissed the civil action on the ground that the last buyer, S.R., had acquired the immovable property in good faith.
15.  The applicants lodged an appeal, claiming that S.R. had not bought the property in good faith. They submitted that S.R. had been aware of the proceedings initiated by their father for the annulment of the forced sale as they had been entered in the land register. The appeal was allowed by a decision of the Bihor County Court delivered on 22 May 2003 on the ground that the annulment of the forced sale should have resulted in the annulment of all other subsequent acts concluded by persons aware of the annulment.
16.  On 8 April 2004 the Oradea Court of Appeal allowed an appeal on points of law lodged by the buyers on the ground that the last buyer, S.R., had entered into the contract in good faith. The reasoning of the appeal court concerning the buyer’s good faith reads as follows:
“In the instant case, as can be seen from the contract itself, sworn before a public notary, the sale contract had been concluded a long time before its signing before the public notary, the price being fixed by the parties and paid in full on 9 October 1996; at that date there was no element from which it could be inferred that the buyer acted with fraudulent intent.”
17.  The decision contained a dissenting opinion by one of the three judges, who maintained that even though the proceedings initiated by the applicants’ father for the annulment of the forced sale - and consequently the sale of his immovable property to T.T.T. and T.T.S. - had been entered in the land register on 5 January 1998, only on 30 December 1998 had the latter sold the immovable property to S.R. Besides, T.T.T. and T.T.S had been parties to the annulment proceedings initiated by the applicants’ father.
18.  The relevant part of the dissenting opinion reads as follows:
“The defendants (T.T.T. and T.T.S.) had known since 1996 that the immovable property they had bought at public auction was the subject of proceedings as they were parties to the proceedings. The buyer, S.R., was also aware of the proceedings as in the sale agreement signed on 30 December 1999, sworn before a public notary, it was expressly stated that the immovable property was the subject of trial no. 6558/1996 of the Oradea District Court”.
...
“The fact that the parties had inserted in the sale agreement that the price had been paid on 9 October 1996 is not relevant as long as the transfer of property from the seller to the buyer had only taken place on 30 December 1998, the date on which the parties had signed the contract before a public notary, after the proceedings had been entered in the land registry ....
Moreover, according to the documents in the file it appears that none of the defendants had possession of the immovable property. They had initiated several eviction proceedings against the plaintiffs, who had refused to leave the property.”